Once again DC hit the ball out of the part with their video games and animated projects. 2017 had the release of two major video game titles, three direct-to-DVD animated movies, as well as the theatrical release of The LEGO Batman Movie. We’ll recap everything from this year as well as a look ahead to what’s to come in 2018.
The first up is
The LEGO Batman Movie.
Will Arnett reprised his role as the brick crusader; making
LEGO Batman one of the best-animated movies of the year. The film grossed over $300 million at the worldwide box office. A respectable tally with the film’s budget only being $80 million dollars. Hopefully, we get to see more of Batman and the rest of the DC characters in more animated adventures. [our full review
here]
Speaking of more animated films, let’s talk about the direct-to-DVD movies. The first of this year was
Justice League Dark. This film is set in the DC Animated Universe and focuses on the mystic side of the world. Batman teams up with Zatanna, John Constantine (voiced by
Matt Ryan), Deadman, Etrigan the demon and Swamp Thing.
Justice League Dark is one of the best DCAU films to date, and it definitely worth checking out. Staying in the DCAU, we have
Teen Titans: Judas Contract. The sequel to last year’s
Justice League vs. Teen Titans, Judas Contract loosely adapts one of the Titans greatest stories. It’s a solid film and was the only DC film that didn’t feature Batman. That’s an impressive feat all on its own.
Next up is
Batman and Harley Quinn.
Bruce Timm tries to recreate the magic of
Batman: The Animated Series and fails miserably. The comedy doesn’t work, the characters are terrible, and the story is just dumb. We’re going to pretend it never happened, okay? Great. Lastly, we have
Batman vs. Two-Face. I haven’t seen the film, but I’ve heard nothing but praise. It’s the sequel to the incredible
Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders, and the final performance from the late
Adam West. Seeing
William Shatner’s Two-Face go up against West’s Batman already has me sold.
Moving on to video games, we have two sequels! First up is Injustice 2. The sequel to Injustice: Gods Among Us, Injustice 2 continues the story of Batman’s Insurgency fighting against Superman’s Regime. They added a gear system that allows you to customize your character. They have some of the most expressive facial animations I’ve seen in a video game. The game was fantastic. It even won the Best Fighting Game of the Year at The Video Game Awards. They added the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hellboy. BEST. GAME. EVER.
The next game is
Batman: The Enemy Within. Picking up a little after season one of
Batman: The Telltale Series,
Enemy Within has us facing the Riddler. The final episode hasn’t been released yet so stay tuned for our review, but the previous three episodes have been fantastic. Batman continues to be one of the best Telltale games.
On the TV side of things,
Vixen: The Movie was released over the summer. They took the show’s two seasons and made it one story. It’s pretty cool if haven’t seen the show. CW Seed also released the first season of
Freedom Fighters: The Ray. The show is set on Earth-X, and stars The Ray. It’s really good and it was awesome going back to Earth-X after the
Arrowverse crossover.
Continuing the TV talk, Batman: The Animated Series celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. The show will finally be available on Blu-Ray next year; something fans have wanted for years. 25 years after BTAS, Kevin Conroy continues to play the Dark Knight in the latest series, Justice League Action. JLA has been doing fairly well on Cartoon Network, and it pretty fun to watch. Still, it’s no match for the king of CN, Teen Titans Go! TTG recently hit the 200 episode milestone and is the most watched show on the network. It’s doing so well that WB is making a Teen Titans Go! movie. The film is set to hit theaters July 27th, 2018.
Speaking of 2018 it’s going to be another fun year. We’ll finally get the third season of
Young Justice (26 episodes!), as well as a two-part retelling of
The Death of Superman. We’re also getting a new DCAU film, this time it’s the debut of the Suicide Squad in
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay! We’re also getting an adaptation of
Batman: Gotham By Gaslight.
If 2018 is anything like 2017, we’re in for a wild ride. Like always, for all things in the world of DC Entertainment, stay tuned.
